


Style, class, and subtlety

by Sproutings



Category: The Sound of Music - Rodgers/Hammerstein/Lindsay & Crouse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27075223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sproutings/pseuds/Sproutings
Summary: When Baroness Schrader notices the budding romance between Maria and Georg, she tries her best to stop it. Perhaps the motives she has been burdened with - greed and malevolence - have been a little off, though.
Relationships: Elsa Schraeder/Georg von Trapp, Elsa Schraeder/Maria von Trapp, Georg von Trapp/Maria von Trapp
Kudos: 9





	Style, class, and subtlety

Elsa sat with her elegant hands folded over her knees. Although she generally admired the way that her hands looked, especially when they sat in the lap of a skirt with such a gorgeous print, cut and fabric, she was quite rapt with the scene before her.

The children and their governess had got up a puppet show. Elsa knew full well that Max had ordered it, and that her soon-to-be fiancé would pay for it. That was Max’s style. It was also her own style – but she was a bit more classy about it. As a woman, and a woman with the position of baroness, it was so very necessary to be more subtle about that kind of thing.

As Georg von Trapp laughed, she followed his suit. The puppet show that the children were putting on really was very entertaining. And the voice that the governess had – who would have thought it of that little, unimpressive Maria! 

Elsa turned her attention to the show before them. Perhaps in her state of musing she looked a little too far into the story - it was, to be fair, an interesting premise: The goatherd sings out on the mountain, and even though he is a peasant, everybody of every station hears him. Princes on bridges, men taking loads on their backs, beer drinkers, restaurant goers – and, notably, the girl in the pink dress. And there, the goatherd is married. If only it was as easy as that, she would be the wife of the handsome Captain von Trapp and mother to his seven children. One could be a mother if one’s first act was to send them all to boarding school straight away, couldn’t one?

(Well, she would be a step-mother. Who would believe that she, with her figure and youth, had brought all of those little things into the world?)

The show went on. Now a goat, also, apparently, in a pale pink coat, had her courtship with a goat. This set the baroness thinking on another track… Two marriages, or two relationships at least, were happening here very quickly.

She looked at Georg’s captivated expression. He was enchanted with the scene before him. He was enchanted by his children – but, perhaps, also, by her.

What if he was thinking that he could begin a relationship with Maria so soon? Was she trying to put that into his head? How could she, the baroness, stop it?

Well, with style, with class, and with subtlety.

The show ended and she joined Max and Georg in their enthusiastic applause. The children jumped down from their platform above the stage – some taking the ladders at either end, and some of them even leapt straight onto the stage. They gathered around and, despite their musical abilities displayed just a moment ago, they just squawked now.

Once the children had been congratulated and fawned over, they ran out of the ballroom into the hall (they always ran everywhere, Elsa noted, with chagrin: Who could ever have such energy? The casual stroll was the Baroness’s favourite mode of ambulation, and it suited her long, aquiline limbs to a tee.) In the hall, they organised first that Max should send the bill for the puppet show to Georg, who accepted wryly but with good grace. Then Maria, governess of apparently not only the children but of the whole party, decided that there should be another musical performance. The question was who would give the musical treat?

When Maria came forward with the guitar and said “You, Captain,” Elsa pursed her lips. It was not often that people looked at someone so earnestly unless they were actually in love or they were planning to have somebody to fall in love with them. 

The captain once again gave in with good grace – eventually. Elsa was glad to see that he could be stubborn, and meant to use that knowledge well. If a scheming minx – a nun, of all people – was setting her cap or habit at her soon-to-be fiancé, she would be able to use his stubbornness, sense of duty, honour, and the immorality of crossing class borders to keep him.

She settles herself on the edge of a sofa, her ankles crossed. The Captain sat on another sofa, across from her, with his eldest daughter next to him. Elsa considered her to be a rather quaint girl, kept protected from worldly influences from a father who kept himself sheltered. She wondered if sheltering the girl would bring grief or happiness to her. Probably both, Elsa decided.

As Georg started playing, Elsa suddenly saw a different side to his character. In the city he was reserved but social, always polite and courteous. He always played with the rules of diplomacy and etiquette. At his country home, she saw him as a stern patriarch, protective and fatherly in a military way. Now, she saw his softer side. The music about his homeland brought it out in him.

She wished that she, and not Maria, had been able to bring out this more romantic side of him. He had recently said – just that afternoon – that he regarded her as his saviour. That and the setting of the willows on the water seemed rather romantic to her, and she had been pleased to bring out that romance, but they were interrupted by the raucous arrival of the children… and the governess.

Now, seeing him with his guitar and surrounded by his family, she realised that before she only saw what he had allowed her to see. Now, his guard was down and it had not been through her influence. When he had carefully measured his speech and words before, he was letting his emotions peak now, and it was unreserved. She had not seen this before.

The governess herself was leaning on the wall. At least she knew her place not to sit with the rest of them, Elsa thought.

The next moment, Elsa was caught off guard. Georg had been gazing rather absentmindedly as he strummed and sang, but on the word ‘happy’, he looked directly at and nodded to Maria!  
Elsa glanced questioningly at Maria. Talk about Georg being unguarded – Elsa was caught off hers with some an intimate little gesture toward the governess. The governess, the little slip of a thing, smiled, but her hand rubbed the table somewhat nervously. Perhaps she was excited by the fact that her scheme was working.

In the late evening, when Elsa had said her goodnights to everyone, she undressed and took the many pins out of her hair. She brushed it out so that it fell on her shoulders, and ruminated. She had suggested the captain give a party to introduce her to his friends. This plan, though quickly thought of, had twofold benefits: it would just about cement the engagement; and it would remind her that he belonged in the first class, not with employees and certainly not with novitiate nun. Why, then, did she still feel uneasy? The pleasures of a ball, and the sparkling future on the arm of a celebrated naval captain were all ahead. Yet, there was decided unease.

She recalled the smile and that nervous little gesture of Maria’s. Georg’s shrug when he finished his song, as though he looked for her approval? Perhaps she wasn’t scheming – perhaps it was something more real. But how could a romance between the two ever come off, or bring happiness to either? Surely Maria knew that her calling was to be a nun, and surely Georg knew that his calling was to lead a polished life with her.

So, time to put some tactics into play.

On the night of the ball – long awaited and much anticipated – Elsa found that it was not all satisfactory. Hadn’t she been standing with as much dignity as she could muster (which was a considerable amount) while she wondered where the host and her partner was? Hadn’t she found him dancing with the governess, quite out of the public eye (but surrounded by his adoring children)? Hadn’t Max, for some unearthly reason, persuaded Georg to invite Maria to dine with them – in dress most unsuited to a formal dinner?

Elsa watched Maria hurry up the stairs, and followed her. She told herself that she was doing it for Maria’s own good – a romance between the two would not do. She was not sure how successful she would be. If somebody was to tell her that an esteemed man like Captain Georg von Trapp was in love with her, she, Baroness von Schraeder, would be in there like a shot (with her trademark subtlety and elegance, as a matter of course).

Maria, however, was far more dramatically inclined to quit the premises altogether once presented with the notion of romance. Elsa felt some small misgivings in her heart when she saw Maria’s drastic response, and the shock on her face. She swallowed any regret, however, and congratulated on a job well done.

She returned downstairs. The feast laid before them, the joy of sitting in the hostess’s place, next to her handsome Georg, the recommencement of dancing – all was a joy to her now, knowing that Maria was off to fulfil her destiny, and that she was to fulfil her own.

Little did she know that there was as yet another chapter ahead of her involving the little Maria.


End file.
